November 10, 2008

Comedian Andy Borowitz graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was president of the humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon, which you would never guess if you’ve ever seen Square Pegs, that horrifying 1980’s television series where he got his start as a screenwriter.

Borowitz went on to represent black people as actual people in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the show he created and for which he was given an award by the NAACP. Now he writes satirical news stories on his website, the Borowitz Report, which is a lot like The Onion, except in single serving doses.

Recently Borowitz posted a faux news story called “Palin Hoping to be Named Ambassador to Africa,” in which he said:

Sarah Palin of Alaska has reached out to President-elect Obama's transition team to indicate her interest in being named "ambassador to the nation of Africa," the governor confirmed today.

Gov. Palin said that although she had planned to continue in her position in Juneau, she was willing to leave the governorship "because Africa is just such a darned important country."

"I have always been very, very interested in the nation of Africa, partly because of it being located where it is," she said. "If you are standing in Africa and you look real close, you can see South Africa."

She added that she had received phone calls encouraging her to vie for the post, including one from French president Nicholas Sarkozy.

The Borowitz Report has been syndicated and is printed in newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also blogs for the Huffington Post, as half of the American media currently does.